Today I want to share my favorite blog posts from the history of Tales of a Peanut. I initially started the Tales of a Peanut blog as a way to get my thoughts and feelings out and then to chronicle my family. Only in 2013 did I start Tales of a Peanut as a business at which point I began to add in some business posts to my blog. But it didn’t transition into an (almost) exclusive business blog until early 2015. While some of my photo editing, writing, and post topics make me grimace when I look back at them today, I think a few hold some of my best writing. And those posts allow you to get a better idea about my family, my values, my dreams, and my life.

So today I’m giving you a deeper look at the person behind Tales of a Peanut as well as the brand. Hopefully you’ll be encouraged by my foibles and give me some grace in my growth.

As I was writing this email I went back to find old posts. One thing I realized is that I need to get back more into writing to process rather than writing to educate! Even if I’m the only one who benefits from it I definitely will. So after going back and rereading a number of really heartfelt posts from 2013 I picked this one as my favorite. I could have written this post today as it’s still something I struggle with. And something that I feel all mother’s struggle with. So here’s my take on whether being a mom means I’m a superhero. (Spoiler alert: It does!)

One thing that is the neatest about this online world that I’m a part of is that I really feel like I can make a difference in the lives of those around me (both virtually and in person). Even though my platform is small, I trust that God is working through my words to accomplish his goals. One way that I’m working to enrich others is through my #TOAPGivesBack campaign. In March of 2016 Tales of a Peanut supported our friends who are adopting a little girl from China and getting to be a part of that story is an incredible opportunity.

I recently wrote a post for The Vintage Honey blog about birthday parties and this post is one of the reasons. I love making birthdays special for my kids and one way that I do this, sometimes, is with all out birthday parties. Charlotte’s Frozen themed party was a labor of love seeing as I was 38 weeks pregnant but she and I had so much fun putting it together. Proof that you should do you and not care or worry about what others say. If you love it, do it, if you don’t, don’t!

We built our home in 2012/2013 and, thanks to Pinterest, I was able to fit a lot of fun things in even on our tight budget. It’s so funny to me that my biggest pin that has ever been on Pinterest is the pin with the picture of our ice maker. Let me tell you, I LOVE that thing and it was worth every penny! New features are coming along every day and some of the things that we put into our home I might do differently after living in it for a few years. But I love looking back and seeing my thoughts from right after we moved in.

Putting together gift guides might be one of my favorite things to do on my blog. I love gathering a list of products that I think are great gifts and sharing them with people. I especially love getting to feature small businesses to help them gain a larger reach. So this favorite blog post is not a link to one post in particular, but a link to all of my gift guides that I’ve curated over the years. Like everything else, my graphics and text game has gotten better the longer I’ve done this but I recommended all of these items for a reason: that I love them and thing others will as well!